Buh-bye 2008

I’ve been a horrible poster in 2008. Part of the my problem is twitter. I’m posting more smaller posts that normally might have gotten channeled into a blog post.

Now I’m sitting here at home, watching the 9:30PM news and listening to the gunfire in the ‘hood. Its New Year’s Eve! We have to pull out the guns and shoot them! bleh. dumbasses. Quite the glamorous life, innit? After being sick, I probably won’t make it to midnight. Oh well.

If I had been industrious, I’d have a list of books I’ve read this past year, and a good set of resolutions for next year. The Terminal already asked about resolutions, and I had some good ones. One of my Christmas presents was a MSF class. I do want to ride my scooter more! My biz was good this past year, and I hope that it goes better next year. Its a chancy thing in the new economy, but I’m not backing down and I already have bookings for 2009. I’m going to try to post more here in ‘09, but I won’t guarantee it.

Thank you to all of you who do come here and hang out occasionally. I do appreciate you all. I wish us a joyous and prosperous New Year!

I finished American Gods

I did finish Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. I did like it,and I’m still mulling it over. Its a lot darker than Anansi Boys, the semi sequel to it. I’ll be writing up a real review of the book soon. But I’m about to crash tonight and trying to write the thoughtful entry that it deserves isn’t possible right now. I’m going to be starting Land of Laughs next.

Tail end of a busy weekend

I got to the library and picked up American Gods and Land of Laughs. I’ve been reading American Gods as I can. But its been a very busy weekend for me, I’ve had 2 jobs that were fairly long this weekend, so I’m still recovering from those. I’ll be continuing to read American Gods around all my other commitments.

Got word from the Library

That the copies of American Gods and Land of Laughs I want to read for Carl’s RIP III challenge had arrived at the branch where I requested them to be delivered. So I now have checked them out and have them here! I’ve started reading American Gods. It starts out a good bit darker than Anansi Boys. I’m looking forward to reading more of it.

Re-read the last 3 books of Stephen King’s Dark Tower

I haven’t blogged about books recently. Last month I found trade paperbacks of the last 3 books of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series. Since I have paperbacks of the first 4 books, I had been wanting to purchase the rest of the series. I checked out these books from the library and read them when they were first published, but its been some time.

The Wolves of Calla resumes the story of Roland, Eddie, Susannah, and Jake. The story owes a great deal to the movies the Seven Samurai and the Magnificent Seven. Our intrepid gunslingers are continuing on their way to the tower, but are asked for help from villagers who’s children are being stolen by the Wolves. This is when the series starts to jump into self referential work and metafiction.

The Song of Susannah deals with the end of Susannah’s pregnancy, and her problems with split personalities. This volume is much smaller than either the Wolves of Calla or The Dark Tower, so it felt a little like it was simply a placeholder. With meeting a young Stephen King and then referencing the accident that came very close to killing him, it has a different feel.

The Dark Tower is the culmination of everything that the series started. The book opens with the gunslingers reaching the point where they have to confront serious minions of the Crimson King. The breakers have been working to destroy the two remaining beams that hold up the universe, so they have to stop them. They also have to save our author from being killed. It works pretty well. I remember when this was first published, there were lots of folks who were outraged that several characters were killed in the course of the book. I thought that, unfortunately, the logic of the story was served by these deaths. After reading about the characters for 7 books, I was attached to ‘em.
But the story ended in a way that made sense and brought the story to a finish.

This may or may not count, but I think this is going to be a review for the RIP III challenge.

Order from Barnes & Noble in my hot little hands…

I ordered several books of Elizabeth Bear’s and a couple of books on good motorcycle riding straight from Barnes and Noble. It arrived this afternoon! Yay! More books!

No I don’t have a motorcycle, but lots of the things that apply to motorcycles apply to scooters, too. And as a complete n00b on motorized 2 wheeled conveyances, I will take highly recommended books as starting places for better riding. I do learn from reading, so there are things that I will pick up to add to my store of ideas in my brain for riding. I will be riding during the upcoming long weekend, weather permitting. And reading a bit, around gigs.

RIP challenge is back

Carl is hosting the 3rd annual RIP challenge again this year. I’m going to take part again. Since I had a terrible time getting all the books I wanted read in the time frame, I’m going to take part in Peril the Second, ie. reading 2 books in the scary book category. I think I can manage that this year.

I still want to read Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll. And I want to read Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. Both of these books were on my list last year, but life intervened and I didn’t get a chance to get to them at all.

I picked up the first of Elizabeth Bear’s Promethean series, Blood and Iron and really enjoyed reading it. So I’ve gone on and purchased Whiskey and Water, Ink and Steel, and Hell and Earth. So if I can work those into the challenge, I’ll try.

Edited
I forgot this earlier, but you can check out all the participants and the stories that they have read at http://ripingyarns.blogspot.com/

Finished World War Z

It only took me half a year to get the book and read it. It is an interesting read. There are parts that I was snickering at, and there are parts that are so true to life that I ached for. Check below the cut for more.

I’m a big ol geek!

Two things that will convince you that I’m a geek, if you weren’t already sure of it.

You can send your name to the moon! Take part in an experiment and have your name sent to space. I’ve already put my name in for this. Oh yeah. I may never physically experience space flight, but my name will make it out there!

I just recently found out that JMS, the creator and producer of Babylon 5, is publishing copies of ALL of his scripts for Babylon 5. So I purchased all of them for my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! DH will enjoy these too, so I don’t feel too badly about it.

Geek, Geek, Geek, I’m a big ol’ geek!

As with everything else, timing

is everything. Getting sick last week kicked my butt. And threw me so far behind that I don’t know that I’ll get caught back up in a reasonable fashion. DH is now getting sick, and he thinks that he may be coming down with what I had. That’s not good at all.

I finished the Dan Simmons Book, The Terror, and it was a good read. I’m still thinking about it, and thinking about how to write it up. It doesn’t really fit into a neat box. And that’s a very good thing.

I’m going to try to get some rest tonight. Y’all take care.

picked up books at the library

I stopped by the local library branch yesterday and found that they had the books I had requested the earlier. Now they hadn’t called me to let me know. They hadn’t emailed me to let me know either. I need to check out my patron profile to see if they have an email address and the correct phone number there. There needs to be a better way to find out if the requested books are ready. But I picked up Dan Simmons The Terror. I’m going to be reading the books I planned to read for the RIP II Challenge, even if it happens a lot later than I initially intended.

I finished The Rest Falls Away

Its after the challenge, but I finally finished the Colleen Gleason book The Rest Falls Away. I was determined to finish it, since I had started it and wanted to see whether it was or was not congruent with my taste in books. It got better than I had feared when I put it down and stopped. I appreciated that in the end, stupidity had serious consequences.

The biggest things that bothered me were the lack of information given to Victoria about the different things she might be facing, and the much more modern mindset of folks. The anachronism was jarring to my understanding of the time period. But those are my own foibles, so YMMV.

Challenge results, sort of

Well, I’m going to have to call the RIP II challenge finished, I guess. I’m not going to finish Dracula in time. I have been reading lots of short stories, though. I managed just a Little Bit of Peril by finishing Harry Potter. I thought I had asked the local library to pull some books for me, but when I checked my online patron record, there was nothing listed in the request area and I had never been contacted by the branch that was supposed to have the books. So I have gone and requested Dan Simmons The Terror and Jonathan Carroll’s Land of Laughs from the library again. I’m going to read them, just not in the challenge time frame.

I also appreciate Carl introducing me to the artwork of Lisa Snellings-Clark and Poppets! Just in time for Halloween, I have managed to home a poppet. Its an Orange poppet, so it may be in danger here, given the Alabama/Auburn rivalry. I think I need to make a home for a Red Poppet and a Black Poppet now.

RIP II Short Stories

I’ve managed to read a few short stories for the RIP II challenge. I forgot I have an anthology collection of short stories called Fantastic Worlds, Myths, Tales, and Stories edited by Eric S. Rabkin. It was initially published in 1979. It has stories by genre, including horror and ghost stories.

The three horror stories are The Sandman by E.T.A Hoffmann, The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe, and The Picture in the House by H.P. Lovecraft. The three ghost stories are The Hand by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Moonlit Road by Ambrose Bierce and Lost Hearts by M. R. James. I think this may have been a textbook for a course on short stories at one time. The publisher is Oxford University Press and the range of genres represented in the book is pretty wide.

I read all 3 horror stories and 2 of the 3 ghost stories. For the horror stories, Hoffman’s The Sandman starts as a story told in letters. It tells of the troubles of a young man who is convinced all his troubles are caused by the Sandman. His father has been killed. He is currently at the University, but when he becomes besotted with a professor’s daughter, he becomes unhinged and obsessed. It goes down hill from there. I’m reminded of some ideas used in steampunk, but the story was written in 1816, so it isn’t retro, its the original deal.

Poe’s The Black Cat would be banned by PETA these days, with good reason. Poor wife, poor kitty, poor Pluto. Our faithless narrator is in the grip of the demon drink, and everyone around him pays for it. The story is moody in the extreme, and much in the mindset of the challenge.

I haven’t read much, if any Lovecraft before, so I was looking forward to seeing what his writing was like. The story is set in his Miskatonic Valley, but without the appearance of the elder beings. Our narrator has been out doing genealogical research in the valley, and is caught by a nasty storm and must seek shelter in a very old house. He meets the owner of the house and sees some of his books. This isn’t particularly scary in itself, but the descriptions of the house and the owner, not to mention the book the owner asks the narrator to read are very creepy. I think I need to try a few more stories of his.

I read Le Fanu’s The Hand, and it seemed like it was a standard ghost story. Nothing really out of the ordinary, but it was written in 1861, so I think I may be a much more jaded reader of ghost stories than his contemporary audience.

Bierce’s The Moonlit Road is a very familiar story, and is a much more tragic one. The ghost of the murder victim appears by moonlight on the road to her husband and son. Husband cannot handle it and runs. Since he was the killer, he is haunted by her.

Short stories are a nice way to be able to read when life is too full. I need to read more stories out of this anthology now.

RIP II challenge update

I may have to change my books for this, or change to reading short stories. Life is not letting me read the way I want to right now. I’ve started re-reading Dracula and it is good. I haven’t read it in at least 10 years, so most of the details are hazy in my memory. Most of my reading time is now right before bed. And I’m burning the candle at both ends, it seems.

I’ve asked the library to reserve some books for me, Jonathan Carrol’s Land of Laughs, Dan Simmons’s the Terror, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, but they’ll get here probably about the time the challenge ends.

So I’ve been looking for some short story collections and will see what I can come up with. I have several stories by Edgar Allen Poe. He’s always good for a creepy story.